SUPERMARKET chain Morrisons continued its recovery today with record sales in the week before Christmas.

It said the final week of trading before Christmas gave it a much-needed boost after "muted" bus-iness earlier in December.

It ensured like-for-like sales at its stores open for a year or more were 6% higher in the six-week Christmas and New Year period than 12 months earlier.

The trading update today echoed comments from Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose, who yesterday said retailers endured a "rollercoaster ride" in the build-up to Christmas, with shoppers leaving it late to buy food and presents.

A clearer picture of Christmas trading for the big supermarkets will emerge tomorrow when Sainsbury's will report on its Christmas trading performance.

Morrisons said sales growth, excluding fuel, was 6.3% in the six-week festive period.

Control of stock left over after Christmas meant there was less waste and fewer mark-downs than a year ago.

The strong performance helped resurgent Morrisons maintain the momentum of the first half of the year when it bounced back from its troubled £3bn takeover of rival Safeway.

Like-for-like sales were up 6.3% for the 49 weeks to January 7, having grown 6.6% in the first half and the group added that the performance since the interim results was better than expected.

"These sales results are slightly ahead of expect-ations at the time of our interim results," said chief executive Marc Bolland.

"However, the group is in the early stage of its profits recovery and the trading environment remains highly competitive."

Morrisons posted the first loss of its 106-year history last year as the problematic integration of Safeway took its toll.

But it recovered in the first half with better than expected pre-tax profits of £134.2m for the 25 weeks to July 23.